Industry vets launch Mekaniq, a B2B e-commerce marketplace

ROCK HILL, S.C. —Tire industry veteran Vic Deiorio has teamed with a handful of other industry vets to set up Mekaniq L.L.C., a B2B e-commerce distribution platform that allows tire retailers, wholesalers, importers and manufacturers to post their inventories and transact business among themselves online.

Mekaniq's tire marketplace provides suppliers with an additional channel to expand their footprint and increase sales and offers buyers an additional supply source to find the tires they need, to make those sales and satisfy their customers.

The platform will provide suppliers an outlet for excess inventory and buyers the chance to search for deals and/or hard-to-find SKUs, the company said.

• This story appears in the Aug. 3 print edition of Tire Business.

Mekaniq's principals boast a team of experienced sales, marketing, IT and data analytics experts with a combined century's worth of experience in the tire and automotive industry.

Besides Mr. Deiorio, who brings 39-plus years of tire industry sales and procurement experience to his role as president, Mekaniq has engaged Michel Dube, who has 40 years' experience at Michelin North America, P.T. Gajah Tunggal and Giti Tire, as chief data officer.

Mr. Deiorio declined to identify others involved in the business.

Mekaniq was founded in 2017 and already has launched several B2B online tire-ordering platforms for tire makers and is in the process of launching a B2C (business to consumer) e-commerce tire platform for an unidentified national tire and automotive retail business.

Current listings include 38 brands, over 3,400 SKUs and 600,000-plus tires.

Key features of the new platform for suppliers include:

• Ability to upload inventory — including overstocks, one-offs, end-of-run tires, etc. — as often as every five minutes via SFTP;
• ERP/POS integration;
• Easy inventory upload criteria;

• Ability to include or exclude freight in pricing;
• Ability to run promotions with start/end date, coupon code, by brand, pattern and/or SKU;
• Provide different price points to different companies, or discounts for quantity or weight breaks;
• Sell nationwide, or control where inventory is seen, by market, state, county, city, even ZIP code(s);
• Target specific companies with inventory;
• "Cloak" your company if you do not want to be known;
• Ability to confirm orders picked, shipped and invoiced;
• Allow or disallow back orders;
• Use own 3PL account for real-time freight quotations (if API is available) or use Mechaniq's account;
• Create multiple roles for multiple users; and
• Place banner ads on platform to highlight sales, promotions, new products, etc.

Key features for buyers include:

• Additional access to multiple suppliers, brands and SKUs;
• Quick search by size, brand, pattern, vehicle type and/or OEM fitments;
• Multiple ordering options, including — direct from quick search; by supplier; bulk order by multiple suppliers;
• Many filter options to find desired tire;
• Alert notifications to additional discounts available while in the shopping cart;
• Real-time freight quotes via FedEx or 3PL;
• Real-time order progress;
• Accept or reject back-ordered quantities and/or SKUs; and
• Create multiple roles for multiple users.